Artist Research - Katie Paterson (Vatnajökull)

For her 2007 project Vatnajökull (the sound of), Katie Paterson left a gallery empty apart from a telephone number on the wall. Visitors calling the number were connected to a microphone embedded in Europe's largest glacier, which has been eroding since 1930. All callers could hear was the creak of ice and the trickle of melting water.

//Vatnajökull; The Water Glacier

Paterson's work in drawing attention to such an important issue can be artistically commended for many reasons. Firstly it's simplicity is particularly effective. By placing only a phone number in a room, a sense of enigma and is created, making the audience question and therefore take action (by calling the number) and being forced to face a difficult truth. Through using the mobile phone as a medium to connect with this inescapable issue, attention is also brought to the ignorance of the population and their addiction to their mobile phones which is causing naivety to real issues.